This recipe was originally yoinked from the good folks at the old Omnimedia: http://www.marthastewart.com/336020/strawberry-cake I like it better with peaches, but you can cover it with literally any fruit, or combination of fruits, that your little heart desires/are threatening to go sketchy in your fridge.
Without further ado:
You will need:
one DEEP* round** 8" or 9" pan
6 T butter plus 1 T butter for greasing the pan
1 c. sugar
1 large egg
1/2 cup milk or cream, or some combination therof
1 t. vanilla extract (note: I always use double strength and I never cut the amount)
3/4 c. all purpose flour
3/4 c. white whole wheat flour*** 1/2 t. salt
1/2 T. baking powder
1 lb (or so) peaches, skinned and cut into wedges.
3 T. raw sugar
You will do:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. and grease your baking vessel with 1 T of butter.
Mix flours, salt, and baking powder together in a bowl.
In a separate bowl (preferably one belonging to your electric mixer), cream together 6T of butter and 1 c. of sugar. Beat for about 3 minutes, scrape down the bowl, and then beat for another ~3 minutes. Scrape down the bowl and add the egg, beat for another 2ish minutes. Finally, scrape again and add the milk and mix for another minute or so. It will look a little bit curdled at this point, but it will get better. I promise.
Now, add half the dry ingredients to the mixer, beat for a minute, scrape down the sides and repeat. Now you have a lovely thick batter that you will now pour into your baking vessel. Don't forget to lick the beater/spoon/scraper/bowl/all of the above.
Arrange the peaches on top of the cake batter covering ever bit possible. Take your 3 T. of raw sugar and sprinkle it generously over the peaches. DO NOT SKIP THIS. I repeat, sprinkle the sugar on the fruit.****
Place cake in oven and bake for 10 minutes. I highly recommend washing up at this point. You'll thank yourself in the morning and you need to hang around for a bit anyway.
Now that the initial 10 minutes is up, turn the oven down to 325 degrees F and bake for another hour. Aren't you glad you aren't trying to do this in the morning?
When the cake is done (taste the toothpick, it will likely be covered in crud, but taste it to see if the aforementioned crud tastes raw), pull it out of the oven and place on a rack to cool. Turn the oven off (it's late). Throw a clean dish towel over top of the cake to keep the cat out of it and go to bed.
Wake to the knowledge that you are awesome. So awesome that someone else can make the coffee.
*Don't even dream of attempting this in a shallow dish unless you were already planning on cleaning your oven. If you only have a shallow pie pan, at least have the good sense to make a Zuni chicken for dinner so the oven is a disaster anyway. Speaking of that most succulent of roast chickens, if you have a cast iron pan for your Zuni chicken, clean out the chicken crispies and it will work brilliantly for this.
**I use a ceramic pie dish, a springform would work, as would most cake pans, and as noted above, your trusty cast iron. You could probably use a square 8" if you've got it, but I haven't tried it. It would totally work though.
***Feel free to just use all purpose flour if you don't have this on hand. I buy the King Arthur White Whole Wheat flour and it's worth picking up. I think Gold Medal has one out now, too, but I haven't tried it. You can switch it for at least half the white flour in your recipes and actually add fiber and vitamins and stuff without impacting flavor/texture noticeably. Also it's not so expensive if you buy it at Target.
****Obviously, if you don't have raw sugar, use regular. Just don't skip this step. It makes the fruit go all moist and jammy instead of becoming slowly dessicated and chewy-in-a-bad-way.
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